Krstinich



Feb. 21, 1956 M. KRSTINICH APRICOT SPLITTER Filed Feb. 18, 1950 1N VEN TOR.

Mar/in km finial:

A manna United States Patent APRICOT SPLITTER Martin Krstinich, Sunnyvale, Calif. Application February 18, 1950, Serial No. 144,894

1 Claim. (Cl. 146-72) This invention relates to and has for its object the provision of a splitter for splitting apricots and other drupaceous fruits of a similar nature and for loosening the pits thereof.

More specifically, the object of this invention is the provision of an apricot splitter including an endless conveyor of V-shape in transverse cross section and arranged to receive apricots with their sutures lying in a vertical plane symmetrically disposed with respect to the endless conveyor; an elongated splitting knife disposed over the conveyor in the path of the apricots carried thereon, and so mounted on the frame of the machine that it is free to rock in response to the movement of apricots along its lower cutting edge or blade, the forward end of the blade being upwardly curved and the rear end of the blade being provided with a notch for receiving the pit of an apricot and for momentarily arresting its rearward movement; and a downwardly extending hood mounted on the knife for engagement with the opposed shoulders of the apricots passing therebeneath and which serves to determine or arrest the downward movement of the knife relative to the apricots passing therebeneath.

The invention possesses other advantageous features, some of which, with the foregoing, will be set forth at length in the following description where that form of the invention which has been selected for illustration in the drawings accompanying and forming a part of the present specification is outlined in full. In said drawings, one form of the invention is shown, but it is to be understood that it is not limited to such form, since the invention as set forth in the claim may be embodied in a plurality of forms.

Referring to the drawings,

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of an apricot splitter embodying the objects of my invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged transverse section taken on the section line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a vertical mid-section taken on the section line 3-3 of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 4 is an enlarged vertical section taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. l.

The pitter shown in these various figures comprises a frame generally designated by the reference numeral 1 and including a pair of opposed, vertically disposed side plates 2 and 3 and a table top 4. Journalled in and between the forward ends of the side plates 2 and 3 is a channelled idler roller 5, conventional means such as a screw 6 being provided for adjusting the longitudinal position of the idler roller 5. Similarly mounted on the rear end of the frame 1 is a channeled driven roll 7 arranged to be driven at any suitable speed through a belt or chain 8 operatively associated with a power takeoff of standard construction. Bolted to the table top 4 for transverse adjustment thereon are longitudinally spaced pairs of opposed plates 9 and 11 and welded to each of these plates are channelled belt guides 12. Slidably supported on the belt guides 12 are endless V- belts 13 which pass around the idler roll 5 and the driven roll 7 and small idler rollers 14 mounted on the side plates 2 and 3. It will therefore be seen that the two opposed V-belts 13 form an endless conveyor of V- shape in transverse section and which is arranged to support the opposed lower faces of apricots 14 If it is desired to change the angle of the V formed by the two opposed belts 13 it is only necessary to shim up the opposed plates 9 and 11 to the desired extent.

Fastened to the side plates 3 intermediate the ends of and overlying the upper reach of the endless conveyor is a bracket 15. Bolted to the upper face of the bracket 15 for transverse adjustment relative thereto is a plate 16 overlying the vertical plane bisecting the endless conveyor and containing the suture of the apricots 14 Welded to the plate 16 is a pair of longitudinally spaced and aligned upstanding guide sleeves or vertical bearings 17 and 18. Slidably mounted in the sleeves 17 and 18 are rods or arms 19 and 21 having bifurcated lower ends 22 and 23. Welded above these bifurcated ends are washers 24 and 25 serving as seats for springs 26 and 27 the upper ends of which engage the lower face of the plate 16. The springs 26 and 27 therefore serve to supplement gravity in downwardly biasing the arms 19 and 21. Fastened to the upper ends of these arms are stop members 28 and 29.

Receivable in the bifurcated ends 22 and 23 of the arms 19 and 21 and pivoted thereto by pins 31 and 32 is an elongated splitting knife 33 disposed in the vertical plane bisecting the endless conveyor. The forward end of the blade of the knife 33 is upwardly curved as at 34 and serves to receive the apricots as they advance rearwardly on the conveyor belt. Formed adjacent the rear end of the blade of the knife is a notch 35 arranged to receive the pits 36 of the apricots as they pass beneath the knife 33 and forming a downwardly extending pit arresting heel 35 Fastened to the upper edge of the knife 33 at each end thereof by bolts 37 and spacers 38 is a hood generally designated by the reference numeral 39 and which includes a pair of arcuate downwardly extending plates or apricot stop or arresting member 41 and 42. The contour and position of this hood should be such that when an apricot is supported on the endless conveyor, the upper opposed shoulders of the apricot are engaged by the hood. The hood therefore serves two functions; first, to support each apricot at two opposed points; and second, to limit and determine the downward movement of the knife 33 relative to the apricots supported on the endless conveyor.

In the operation of the splitter above described apricots are manually delivered to the endless conveyor with the plane of their sutures lying in the vertical plane bis'ecting the conveyor but without regard to the loo.- tion of the stem end of the apricot. The speed of travel of the endless conveyor should be such that, as a result of the normal movement of an operator, apricots are deposited on the endless conveyor on about six inch centers, this being substantially the spacing of the apricots shown in dotted line in Fig. 3. As the apricots so positioned advance rearwardly on the endless conveyor, they first contact and are impaled on the toe or upwardly curved forward end of the knife 33. The weight of the knife assembly supplemented by the action of the springs 26 and 27 serves to force the knife into the apricot. The position and contour of the hood 39 is so correlated to the position of the knife, the size of the apricot and the location of the endless conveyor that the knife can move downwardly only to such an extent that it engages the pit 36 of the apricots. As the apricots progress beneath the knife, there may be a slight 3 rotation thereof resulting from the frictional engagement of the apricots with the hood 39. When each apricot reaches the heel of the knife its pit 36 is received in the notch 35 and its rearward movement is momentarily arrested at least to such extent that the pit is loosened from the flesh of the apricot. During the entire travel of each apricot along the knife, the knife is free to rock in a vertical plane in response to the movement of the apricots and the orientation of their pits relative to the knife. The split apricots with their loosened pits continue to travel on the endless conveyor to the rear end of the machine Where they are dropped either onto another endless conveyor or into suitable containers to be taken to another station for further processing.

I claim:

An apricot splitter and pitter comprising: a frame provided with a pair of spaced, vertical bearings; a rod slidably mounted in each of said bearings; an elongated, horizontally extending, downwardly facing apricot splitting and pitting knife pivotally supported by the lower ends of said rods for vertically bodily movement and rocking relative to said frame, the forward end of said 4 knife being upwardly curved and the rear end thereof being provided with a downwardly extending pit arresting heel; spring means operating between each of said rods and said frame for downwardly biasing said rods; and an endless conveyor mounted on said frame for movement immediately beneath and generally parallel to said knife, said conveyor forming a V-shaped trough for supporting apricots in alignment with said knife.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 752,929 Shelley Feb. 23, 1904 1,334,162 Moltzner Mar. 16, 1920 1,365,129 Thornton Jan. 11, 1921 1,365,166 Garman Jan. 11, 1921 1,407,524 Fourchy Feb. 21, 1922 1,890,676 Fox Dec. 13, 1932 2,100,455 Souther et a1 Nov.'30, 1937 2,293,133 Halferty Aug, 16, 1942 2,498,962 Patterson Feb. 28, 1950 2,500,648 Sunseri Mar. 14, 1950 2,558,899 Green July 3, 1951 

